After my last post on How To Set Gmail As The Default Email Client? I have been trying out registry edit versions of it. In simpler words no installation of any software but just edit the registry of Windows XP (yes that’s what I still use) and change the system default to Gmail instead of Microsoft Outlook or anything else. Well here goes, but as always a word of caution – please be careful and do follow instructions to a T.
Open a notepad and type in the following…
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmail]
@="Gmail"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailDefaultIcon]
@="c:windowsGmail.ico"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailProtocols]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailProtocolsmailto]
"URL Protocol"=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailProtocolsmailtoshell]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailProtocolsmailtoshellopen]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailProtocolsmailtoshellopencommand]
@="rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandlerhttp://mail.google.com/a/example.com/?extsrc=mailto&url=%1"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailshell]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailshellopen]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailshellopencommand]
@="rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandlerhttp://mail.google.com/a/example.com/?account_id=user%40example.com"
If you want to have a non generic icon, search the net for one, save it to your computer and change the following to point to it's location. then add it to the above script.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClientsMailGmailDefaultIcon]@="c:windowsGmail.ico"
This is an effective registry hack (courtesy Kurt Huber) and one that works without a problem.
Next up –
- Change 'example.com' to your domain.
- Change 'user%40example.com' to your email address.
- Save the file as 'gmail.reg'.
- Right click on the file and select 'Merge'.
You are all set to go. It is not really much different from using Google Apps, but for those who want an uncluttered system and desktop and are abhorrent to installing new applications this does serve a much better purpose.
